As with any business, your ability to generate a predictable stream of leads and enquiries is critical to your continued growth and increasing revenue streams. I am going to share 10 lead generation ideas for estate planners that will help you build out some reliable lead sources, that will continually fill your pipeline with new enquiries. If you have not yet downloaded the "Step By Step Guide To Becoming An Estate Planning Consultant" make sure you do, as it is packed full of ideas like this, to help you succeed.

Idea #1 - Customer & Client Referrals

Let's start with the most successful lead generation strategy that there is, asking your own happy clients to refer people that they know for advice from you. Every successful estate planner that we know, is excellent at asking for referrals. Remember you build a relationship with your clients, you take care of them and make sure they are protected, why would they not want to recommend you to their friends.

BTWC TIP: A great idea, we have seen work really well for generating referrals is to send a bottle of wine or flowers as a thank you to each of your clients, with a hand written note and three referrals "cards". Show the client you really appreciate their support and ask them to share your details with three friends.

Idea #2 - Partner Referrals

We all have a network of other businesses and organisations that we know or work with. Make it your job to offer them a "reward" for referring work to you. Think about your local school, local care homes, accountants, or other I.F.A's who may have a bank of clients but not offer Estate Planning Advice. We have seen Estate Planners build their entire businesses around this one source of leads, so sit down and think through who you know and how a partnership could be mutually beneficial (no pun intended) for you.

Idea #3 - Client Reviews

The fact is that people's life is constantly evolving and changing, life events are happening, they are buying houses, having children, suffering health issues, saving money and thinking about the future. So planning out a "Client Review" at least once every 2 years is a great way of ensuring that they are constantly updating their will and estate planning, in line with their changing lives. Make sure this is discussed and diarised when you see them, as it makes you the expert who is looking after them and will generate significant additional work for your business.

Idea #4 - Local Networking

Every area has a number of local networking events and by joining and attending these you can share your Estate Planning services with other business owners. This can serve two benefits, driving direct work and also build up a network of Partner Referrers for your business (See Idea #2)

BTWC TIP: Prepare a 45 Minute "Presentation For Prospects" that you can offer to run as a workshop for people at these local networking events. Make sure they are informational and insightful, not salesy, that they identify problems and challenges that people can face and how to best address them.

Idea #5 - Google My Business

Google My Business (GMB) is a free service that Google offers for you to list your business locally. The traffic to GMB profiles has increased by 40% in the past 12 months, as more and more people rely on it to search for local businesses to help them. So you would be crazy not to spend the time to get this right. Simply visit Google Business Profile to set up your free profile and "claim" your business on Google Maps.

Make sure you set up a link to your website from your GMB profile, a phone number, email address and set up the Chat facility. You will be amazed how quickly this source of leads takes to generate you a regular stream of leads.

Idea #6 - Optimise Your Website For Conversions

One of the biggest mistakes we see Estate Planners making is that they throw up a "brochure" website to give a bit of information about what they do, their services and a contact us page without thinking about what their visitor is looking for help with and how best to start giving that help. Your goal with your website is to "connect and engage" your visitors with interesting, helpful content and then convert this interest into a lead in your CRM to nurture a relationship with and naturally start a conversation around how you can help them.

Make sure you create some guides for people to download, blog posts for them to read, videos for them to watch and checklists for them to complete, then you are giving value first before starting the conversation - this is the modern way.

BTWC TIP: Make sure you set up "Web Chat" - Give visitors an easy way to ask you a question through a web chat / live chat widget on your website. People just don't want to fill in long forms anymore, they want quick and easy answers.

Idea #7 - Engage On Social Media

Your clients are on social media every day, they are posting on Facebook, tweeting on Twitter (X) and watching videos on YouTube, so if you are not active on at least one of those channels, you are missing out on a huge source of leads for your business. We recommend that you focus on just one channel and get very good at it, set up a Facebook Page for your business (this is not a personal Facebook profile but a business page).

Then post "daily" on your Facebook page, mix up videos, written posts, images, graphics and share other people's posts. We know a number of Estate Planners who use Facebook Live and do a short 5 min video each morning, discussing where they are going and some of the challenges they have helped people solve each day. The perfect content for people to see and relate to, if they have the same problem or live in the same area.

Don't try to be perfect - just be consistent and regular - it works!!

Idea #8 - Online Directories

We spoke about Google My Business earlier, and this is one of the most popular online directories, however there are hundreds of online directories, some paid and some free, that can list your business and send you traffic to your website or even leads direct. We recommend you add your business details, website and phone number to at least 30 directories. We have produced a free list of the best 30 directories to go for, for our Advisers, so make sure you get in touch to grab a copy of this invaluable list.

Idea #9 - Live Events

We spoke about the value of running regular monthly workshops at your local networking events, but of course it does not need to stop their, you can run them online as webinars, in local businesses for their staff, on LinkedIn Live, YouTube Live, Facebook Live and book a venue to run your own offline events. A strong event calendar, doing 1 per week, will bring you a constant stream of leads into your business, as people get to meet you and form an emotional connection.

Idea #10 - Paid Ads

Simply the most scalable way to grow your business month on month, is to get good at running paid ads on Google Ads for search and on Facebook for lead generation. Don't be scared of putting together a small budget to run paid ads each month. Remember that Google and Facebook want you to succeed with this and will help you get it right. We have seen Estate Planners go from starting up to 30 leads per month, just using paid ads.

BTWC TIP: Don't forget to use Re-Marketing and build out custom audiences of people who engage with your Facebook page, watch your videos, read your posts or visit your website. These people know you and have already shown an interest in you, so running ads to these audiences converts well and is a cheaper click than a straight lead generation paid ad.